There are more 16- to 24-year-olds not working or in school in San Diego than you might think

Some 16-to-24-year-olds in San Diego County are more likely to earn less than many of their peers because they are not in school or holding down a job, says a new report by the San Diego Workforce Partnership.

Some 16-to-24-year-olds in San Diego County are more likely to earn less than many of their peers because they are not in school or holding down a job, says a new report by the San Diego Workforce Partnership.

East San Diego County had the highest number of youths not working and not in school at 13 percent in 2015.

There are 43,210 young people between the ages of 16 to 24 who are not in school or working in San Diego County, says a new report by the San Diego Workforce Partnership.

The report, based on an analysis of the 2015 American Community Survey, shows almost 10 percent of the county’s youth are “disconnected” from school or work. Experts say that puts them at higher risk for long-term unemployment and poverty.

At a time when young people should be earning life skills or testing out careers, many are on the sidelines for a variety of reasons, such as Jacinto Carrera Jr., a 24-year-old who shared his story at a jobs summit sponsored by the partnership Thursday.

Carrera spent his formative years in City Heights with his family, struggling under the weight of losing his father to deportation. Carrera said he started hanging with the wrong crowd as a teen and became addicted to methamphetamines — ignoring school or jobs. He now works, but he’s not alone in his age group.

Historically this segment of the population — teens and young adults — typically have the highest unemployment rates. During the Great Recession, unemployment averaged 25.8 percent among 16-to-19-year-olds, said Pew Research Center, and 15.5 percent among 20-to-24-year-olds. It wasn’t until 2015 that unemployment returned to pre-recession levels for this group of workers.

While it might be tempting to assume these youngsters were all slackers playing video games, data and interviews by the partnership show they tend to come from the poorest areas without reliable transportation to get to work.

About 9.7 percent of 16 -to -24 year-old San Diegans were not working or in school in 2015. That’s lower than the U.S. average of 12.3 percent, but higher than cities like Boston where just 7.3 percent are out of the loop.

San Diego’s number of disconnected workers has been steadily declining from about 12 percent two years ago, but the overall number still concerns the nonprofit San Diego Workforce Partnership.

The organization’s Flip the Script Youth Summit at the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation on Thursday was attended by roughly 500 people and was aimed at reducing the gap between those not working or in school.

Andy Hall, vice president and chief program officer at San Diego Workforce Partnership, said the problem goes beyond just taking a few years off. Data shows those without some education after high school will see a reduction in their lifetime earning potential.

Hall, 28, said it isn’t good for San Diego County’s economy to have people out of work either.

“At the same time there are 43,210 disconnected youth, not working, not in school, not gaining skills in any way,” he said. “Employers are knocking on our doors every day saying they can’t find enough talent.”

Data shows the poorest neighborhoods have the most youths not working or in school. The worst place is Vista, with 18.6 percent of disconnected youths, followed by Fallbrook/Alpine (18 percent), Lemon Grove/Spring Valley (17.2 percent) and East Escondido (15.5 percent).

East San Diego County had the highest number of youths not working and not in school at 13 percent in 2015, followed by South County at 11.6 percent. The wealthier parts of the county had better rates with central San Diego at 7.2 percent and 10.2 percent in North County.

The average age for a nonworking person not in school in San Diego County is 20 years, according to U.S. Census data, which was analyzed by the Workforce Partnership, and is slightly more likely to be a woman (1 percent).

Eighteen percent of disconnected youth in the county have less than a high school education, 35.5 percent are looking for work and 25.6 percent are women with children. (About 69.1 percent have health insurance.)

When broken down by ethnicity, Asians are least likely to be without school or a job (6.3 percent). They were followed by whites (9.6 percent), Latinos (12.9 percent) and African-Americans (17.1 percent).

Carlos Cortez, the president of San Diego Continuing Education, said at the summit that helping young adults early in life can mean stopping all sorts of trouble like jail or even death.

“The most important factor in the work we are doing is the individual, personal human connections with these young adults,” he said. “When you’ve experienced the trauma that these individuals have experienced, they’ve lost their childhood.”

Several young adults that struggled shared their stories at the summit, and through different outreach groups, have managed to find employment or enroll in schools.

Mia Fletcher, 22, who grew up in Palm Springs and Imperial Beach, started life in a troubled family and was bullied throughout high school. She said she quickly went to college after high school but dropped out because of a domestic violence situation and later became a drug addict, putting her dream of college on hold. After completing a Job Corps program, she is now going back to school with the aim of becoming a neurologist.

Jessica Rivera, 17, who also spent most of her youth in City Heights, said she started acting out when her single mother broke up with a long-term boyfriend. She skipped class often, did drugs and eventually was kicked out of school after being caught with a knife. She re-enrolled but is now in the process of transferring to a charter school.

Even when a student is in school or has a job, success can be perilous based on their economic situation. Like many college students, Ana Lomeli, 20, of Barrio Logan, said she struggled to work full-time to pay for school while taking classes.

She took a break from working to focus on classes at San Diego City College, but was going on a job interview Thursday to help make ends meet. As the daughter of immigrants, Lomeli said she’s lucky they understand the need for education — unlike many of her peers in similar situations.

“Some are just working because they need to put food on the table,” she said of why they don’t pursue higher education.

New York-based Measure of America, a nonpartisan research group that has been crunching these numbers for a few years, found there were 4.9 million young adults in America in 2015 who had no job and weren’t going to school.

Similar to San Diego, the number has declined as the nation recovers from the Great Recession. There were 12.6 percent disconnected young adults in 2008. The number hit a peak in 2010 of 14.7 percent and declined to 12.3 percent in 2015. Researchers don’t like to go much further back because college was less prevalent in previous decades.

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